Charlest, I know that you take very good care of your equipment so could you tell me how this machine has worked for you in terms of oil extracted out of ball and difference in ball on lanes after using this machine. Also is this something you could use inside house or would it be better in garage or utility shed as far as smell and fumes. Thanks in advance it's always been a pleasure dealing with you.
So far it has had no problems extracting oil from a ball soaked with it. I have mostly used 135 degrees, but I did one session to test machine and ball. I used 155 degrees for 3 1/2 hours. No more oil came out and the ball was not damaged. BUT I strongly recommend against doing this.
After an hour, if the ball has oil in it (I've done some balls that had no oil), I suggest picking it up with good paper towels, like Bounty, and spraying it with a good deep degreaser, like 409, or strong ball cleaner like Hook-It, to get the oil off the ball before it is reabsorbed. Depending on how much oil was in and came out, there could be oil in the supporting cup as well as on the ball.
If the ball needs a resurfacing, I sand the ball with a maroon Scotch-Brite (360 grit). I think it opens up the surface a little bit, possibly making it easier for the oil to come out. I can't back that up with chemistry facts, but it certainly can't hurt if you have to resurface it anyway.
Once clean, you might want to try another 20 - 30 minutes, just to see if there's any more oil inside.
You can use it inside, but I suggest NOT the kitchen, as wife, girl-friend, mother or boy-friend may object. I use it in my workshop. It uses 450 watts; so you could attach 3 at the same time on one 15 amp circuit if you were testing or being careless (PLEASE DON"T DO THAT!). So it uses between 5 and 10 cents worth of electricity for a 1 hour session depending on where you live.
